Speaker: Dr John Helly (Director, Laboratory for Earth and Environmental Science at San Diego Supercomputer Center, University of California, San Diego—Profile)

Scientific data management has requirements that derive from the fundamental nature of the scientific method. This includes the need for reproducibility of results and comparative analysis within and between scientific disciplines. While these are fundamental to scientific progress, there is also an evolution toward scholarly data publication that is being realized by multiple organizations around the world; some with open-access motivations and some with commercial motivation. The technologies that are employed to satisfy these requirements and achieve the goals of improving scientific progress through data-sharing and re-use have implications that should be considered in any reasoned implementation of a scientific data management strategy. Intellectual property rights, cyberinfrastructure interoperability and portability also have to be considered in light of long-term sustainability and open-access goals.